1760 v.1 Considerations on the present 3 1 a te of t V t - 1 nd 5 a ' r ' s : by a Person, I-low , -md for Ti^e Past, Interested in UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES CONSIDERATIONS O N T H E PRESENT STATE OF T H E A s T - 1 N D i A Company's AFFAIRS: By a Perfon, Now, and for a long Time paft> Interefted in them. LONDON: Printed for W. Ni COLL, in St. Pnui's Churchyard, and W. RICHAR&SON, and Co. under T O T H E PROPRI ETORS O F ^EAST-INDIA STOCK. S the Conteft for the Choice of Directors is now over, it may feem improper to trou- ble you or me Public with any frem Difputes ; and, as the Merits of particular Servants have been fo much extolled, it may be deemed pre- fumptuous to examine fuch facred Cha- racters. But thefe Reafons are fo far from difcouraging me to communicate the fol- lowing Reflections, that they rather excite my Zeal : I wifh to ftrip off every ficti- tious Ornament that Wealth and Titles may have lent, and to reprefent, with Truth and Candor, the real Merits of thefe favourite Servants. Had this Addrefs B been 358688 [ 4 ] been before publifhed, it might have been thought that the Intereft of a Friend was alone confulted, and that, to make Room for this dillinguimed Perfon, the Services of others were purpofely undervalued. The Proprietors having now chofen their new Directors, the latter Objection ceafes ; whether their Choice has been prudent, Time alone will difcover : Of this I am certain, that there never yet has been an Election lefs free, lefs candid, or lefs ho- nourable. Immenfe Property has been transferred to thofe who, to ferve their Friend, will mock their God. The Re- lations of difmifled Servants have fhewn the moil ungenerous and illiberal Refent- ment to one Gentleman, becaufe he con- curred with, and perhaps urged, the reft of his Brethren to punim Difobedience, and to check the mercenary Views of pri- vate Intereft and Ambition. The Lea- ders too at the Helm have exerted their "Power againft the above Gentleman, whom laft Year they as warmly ef- poufed: Reafons are given for this Al- teration in their Conduct, which 1 could wifh redounded more to their Ho- nour, and to the Honour of their new Friend. Againft fuch united Efforts this Gentleman prevailed; he was fupported by I 5 ] by the difmterefted Citizens, and by thofe Friends whofe Names are ftill dear to the India Company. I do not mean to enter into any particular Confideration of the Abilities and Integrity of Mr. Sulivan, my Intention not being to vindicate his Cha- racter, but to reprefent to you fome Af- fairs in Bengal, which you may not yet have been informed of. I mall begin with the Grants originally given to the Com- pany, and mall curforily mention every Article that you ought, or would wifh to know. The Company's PofTemons in Bengal were ceded to them in the Year 1715 by the Mogul, in Acknowledgement of the approved behaviour of the Englifb then reading there, and in Confequence of an cxpenfi ve Embaffy fent him at that Time. A Royal Charter was then like wife gran ted, impowering thcEng/f/b to trade throughout his extenfive Dominions free of all Duties on any Goods imported or exported : A Tract of Land was appropriated and allotted for their Refidence : Permimon was given them to correct his own Subjects accord- ing to their Laws, the Power of inflict- ing capital Punifhments excepted. They were authorifed by the Mogul to coin Money imprefled with his Name, and in- B 2 dulged [ 6 ] dulged in many other Rights and Privi- leges which do not at this Time particu- larly occur to me. But let this be noted and remembered, 'That the Erection of Forts, or the Building of Fortifications, was exprefsly and abfolutely prohibited. Such Privileges furely ought to have been preferved by the fame good Con- duel: which had at firfl procured them to us. But, alas! the Servants of the Com- pany, moved by Interefl or Ambition, were foon tempted to over-ftride even thefe large Bounds allotted them, by co-* vering the Goods of the Natives under their Name, and thereby moft unjuftly defrauding the Royal Revenue. TheTTrutb and Confequence of this Facl: appear from the feveral Demands made upon the Com- pany, on this very Account; which De- mands they have been obliged to fatisfy from their own Capital. In the Year 1757, a principal Officer of the Nabob Surajab Doula, who had betrayed his Matter's Truft, and had rob- bed him of great Sums of Money, fled for Protection to our Settlement at Cal- cutta. The Nabob demanded that this Man and Jiis Effects mould be delivered up to him, but this juft Demand was, on our Part, peremptorily refufed. Incenfed [ 7 ] at fuch Injuftice and Indignity, the Nabob attacked and took Poffeffion of the Places and EfFe&s of the Englifi fettled in that Country; and, provoked by Rage to Cru- elty, confined the principal of them in a clofe noifome Dungeon, where almoft all of them expired. Thofe who efcaped this dreadful Confinement, fled for Refuge to the Ships and VefTels then lying in the River. I will not aflert, that the Nabob's Defection from us, and his Hoftilities commenced againft us, were owing to this only Caufe; but to this one Caufe, among many others, I have heard it principally afcribed. Soon after this memorable Event, Ad- miral Watfon, with the Ships under his Command, and a Body of Land Forces under Colonel Cfive, arrived in Bengal, re- took the Company's Settlements, routed the Nabob's Army, and, at his Requeft, concluded a Peace with him. The Sta- bility of this Peace, the Sincerity of the Nabob's Reconciliation, and of his good Difpofitions towards the EngKJh, being foon flrongly fufpected, it was thought expedient to remove him. This was fuc- cefsfully effected by withdrawing, from his Allegiance, his Kinfman, Minifter, and Ge- neral, Jo/per Ally Kawn : The late Na- bob, t 8 ] bob, Surajab Doula, was depofed, and, I fear, murdered', yaffier Ally Kawn was, by the Englijh, declared and confirmed Nabob in his" Stead. In Acknowledgement of thefe Services, viz. the Principality and Power to be conferred on him by your Servants, (to neither of which he had the leafl Claim) and by him to be held at their Pleafure, this Nabob Stipulated to pay the Sum of 3,125,0007. as a Satisfaction and Reparation to all thofe who had fuffered by his PredecefTor's Violence. Now to what Sufferers, and in what Proportion, tnis immenfe Sum was distributed, I Shall acquaint you, as I was myfelf authenti- cally informed by a Perfon then on the Spot, and Shall leave you to reflect and conSider, who were the Distributors, by what Authority they became fuch, by what Motives they were actuated, and whether by thofe of equal and disinterested JuStice. The following was reprefented to me as a true State of the Distribution of the Sum allotted us by the Nabob : [ 9 ] To the Company for Reftkution of their Damages 1 ,250000 the European Inhabitants - - 625000 Moors, &c. Indian Inhabitants - 25000 Armenians ------- 87500 - ' - 962500 2,212500 Gratuities faid to be ajfigned, ngUjhman. The indo- lent Jaffier Ally Kawn foon called to his Aid the Dutch, and, as it is our Misfor- tune to have thefe reftlefs Neighbours, as well as the French, in Bengal, their united Efforts will readily be granted to any Na- bob whofe Injuries may provoke Revenge. Happy would it be for the Proprietors if the Refolution taken in a General Court on the loth of "January 1760, and now ftanding unrevoked in your Company's Books, could ftrictly be carried into Ex- ecution ; you might then fee a more par- ticular Account of the Diflribution of Su^ rajah Dou/as Treafure; you might know what became of all the Gold and Dia- monds, which reafonably may be fuppofed to have been depofited in the Treafury, equally with the Silver, efpecially as the Indians are remarkable for hoarding up Gold ; whereas the Silver (as it is faid) was the only Article of that Treafure ex- hibited hibited to the Public j and you might then inquire into the Reafonablenefs of thofe large Gratuities which your Servants have claimed. But herein, Iconfefs, you will be powerfully oppofed, if not totally ob- ftruded, by the continued Stratagems of thefe very Servants ; they have prudently confederated and combined together for their mutual Safety ; they are reported to have very early instituted a Society into which no one was to be admitted that was not a Proprietor of India Stock, by which cautious Step they feem to have been long apprehenfive of a juft Attack. Befides this common Fund, they have thrown their own exorbitant Wealth into your Stock; by dividing which they may gain fuch an Afcendancy in your Councils, as to dif- mifs the faithful Stewards of your Houfe, and to place themfelves, and their Crea- tures, in their Room. Indeed we have lately feen fuch Efforts made by this Body to rule the Company, as may juftly alarm every ferious Proprietor ; for, inftead of the Directors adding in the Manner they have hitherto done, and appointing proper Perfons to the vacant Stations, which they muft befl know how to fill, a General Court is to take that effential Part into their own Hands, and fuch Servants are to [ '9 ] to be nominated as may be agreeable to the Views and Intentions of an interefted Majority. Should thofe, now in Bengal, come home with the vaft Fortunes which, it is reported, they have acquired, and join their Friends in England, their united Wealth may eafily give them fuch Autho- rity that every Oppofition will be fruit- lefs 5 and then let the prudent and fenfible Proprietor judge what muft be the Con- fequence. This muft be evident to all, that, till lately, the India-Houfe could very conveniently contain the Proprietors, but iince the Mine has been fprung in Bengal, the largeft Halls in London are fcarcely fufficient for that End. It may fpecioufly be urged, that thofe Men have the beffc Right to direct the Affairs of the Com- pany who have the greateft Property in it : This Affertion will in general hold good ; but when a particular Junto unite their Capital to ward off any Attack upon their Fortunes, when they fap the very Foundation of this Company by illegally increafing the Number of Voters, and when their Views feem to be centered in themfelves, and not directed to the Pub- lic Weal, then the Defigns of fuch felf- interefled Men ought carefully to be watch- ed and guarded againft, and every At- D tempt [ ao j tempt at Power ought ftrenuoufly to be oppofed. I am the more confirmed in the Juftice and NecerTity of this Oppofi- tion, from what I have obferved at the late General Courts. For what End were you firrr. called together ? Why, to oppofe the Appointment of Mr. Spencer, and to promote a Brother Rengalkr. I am not now going to enter into the Propriety of this particular Appointment, but I do think that the Directors are the beft Judges of the Merits of their Servants, and that, if you take from them the Power of no- minating their Prefidents, you neceflarily introduce Anarchy and Confufion. In the Courfe of thefe late Debates did the real Intereft of the Company feem to be con- fulted ? far from it. The Good of the Public is a popular Cry, but was never more improperly flung out than at thefe Meetings. You profefted to confult about Meafure, but Men alone were the Ob- jects of Difpute. You had Rage, Difap- pointment and Envy to contend with. One foams becaufe a near Relation had deiervedly been turned out of the Service : Another laments the Stoppage of an An- nuity, and for that Reafon comes deter- mined, with his numerous ValTals, to op- pofe every Meafure that the Court of Di- rectors rectors may have adopted, forgetting, at the fame Time, that fome of thefe Mea- iures, and efpecially the Stoppage of this Annuity, may have been firft propofed, recommended, and very ftrongly urged by his independent* ingenuous, and truly honour- able Friend. A third cannot bear to fee fuperior Abilities in any Man, and, left jhis own little Stock of Merit mould be overfhadowed, he wimes (however thank- ful he maybe for one Year's Tranquillity) to remove from the Chair a formidable Competitor. Againft this furious Hoft you at firft prevailed, and prudently left the Directors to act as they might judge right. But fhort was your Victory. Hire- lings were immediately levied, and the Public were once more to be bubbled in the South-Sea Houfe. From the Lips of Truth firft dropped the Name of Lord C/ive ; a Name dear to Fortune, and dear to many Individuals. The fage and difpaflionate Neftor, fee- ing Difcord likely to increafe, feized the Hint thrown out, and fought to reconcile all Differences by the Nomination bf Lord C/ive; his Motives, I am perfuaded, were good, and his Nomination feemed, by the Majority, to be approved of. Some few, indeed, wife and penetrating Men, op- D 2 pofed [ 22 ] pofed the Mcafure ; but it was in vain to ftem the Tide of Popularity : Shouts and Clamours proclaimed the Heaven-born Hero, and the Gaping Multitude deemed him their future Deliverer. The noble Lord then told you, that he could not ac- cept the Service offered him, till the Court of Directors bore the fame good Will to him, that he did to them. Agreeable, one would have thought, to his Wifhes; a very polite Letter was afterwards fent to his Lordfhip, at the unanimous Order of the Directors ; but this was not thought a fufficient Proof of Cordiality. The moft folemn Affurances of Concurrence and Sup- port in- every Meafure for the Good of the Company were then publicly made to his Lordfhip, but, as no Regard, in his Opi- nion, was to be given to them, there flill wanted fome further Confirmation of good Will. In fhort, -his Lordmip's Aim was confeffedly this -, to turn Mr. Sul'ivan out of the Direction ; and to accomplifh this, the moft ungenerous Reflections were thrown at his Character. Whether his Lordfhip propofed any Advantage to him- felf by the Expulfion of this Gentleman, I leave you to judge. If you are to de- termine from Aftfonti and not Words, {which, as he juflly told you, were diffe- rent rent Things) the Confiftence of his Lord- mip's Conduct is not eafily to be feen 5 for, in the Letter which he fent to the Directors, he pretends to object to one Man only, and difowns any Endeavours to gain an undue Influence in the Direc- tion ; yet it is, I believe, an indifputable Fact, that Applications had long been made before the above Letter was written (both by his Lordfhip and his Friends) to many of the Proprietors for their Votes at the en- fuing Election ; and when the King's- Arms Lift was publifhed, which was fa- miliarly called Lord C/ive's Lift, and may therefore be fuppofed to have been fettled with his Lordfhip, not only the Man par- ticularly objected to was left out, but al- moft all his known Friends. How this apparent Difference between Words and Attions can be reconciled, I know not: I muft own that it puzzles me. The Direction now being fettled, and Mr. Sulivan having been excluded from that Chair, which, by Right of Succeffion, he juftly claimed, Lord Clive will, I fup- pofe, dtfmtereftedly enter into your Service, hot with a View of acquiring more Wealth, but to fave the Company from impending Ruin. How greatly are you obliged to the generous Zeal of this Hero ? and yet, I [ 24 ] fear, that many of you are not duly fenfible of the Obligation, efpecially thofe among you who remember the Confequences of former Tran factions. Some of you are apt to think, with the fpirited Mr. Poft, that your Misfortunes may be dated from the Victory at Plaffey y and that fuch another Conqueft might be fatal. You approve not of the Art of Nabob-making, and imagine that Individuals alone are benefited by it : You cannot like to fee young Men, (fo late- ly your Servants) now emboldened only by their Wealth, commanding and infulting you at your General Courts; Men, who, though by no Means fparing in their Preten- fions, yet have not the Effrontery to boaft of any Services that bear the leaft Propor- tion to their. Re wards, and whofe Names were fcarcely known while Surajah Doulah lived. Some too among you are not fo fan- guine as others affect to be, in their Expec- tations of the immenfe Advantages we are promifed from the great Leader's third Ex- pedition to India -, you may rather wifh him to content himfelf with the Glory of that Victory, where the Afiatici were no fooner feen than put to Flight. You murmur fomething about a General's being afleep, when the celebrated Battle was won ; and, the Difficulties and affual Refinance which 3 Major f *5 ] Major Adams has fuccefsfully flruggled with, may have left with you fuch an, Impreffion of his Military Talents, that, after having baffled all the Force and Cunning of well difciplined Forces, you wifh to fee this expe- rienced Soldier continued in his Poft. At the fame Time, you call to Mind the difin- terefted Labours of that truly valuable Ser- vant, General Laurence -, of him, who has glorioufly contended with veteran Troops, headed by the braveft Generals of an Eu- ropean Enemy, who has not, amid the many Victories he has gained over Afiatic Princes, accumulated a Fortune equal to a third Part of one Year's Produce of a Jaghirc ; who has never made his Valour fubfervient to his Avarice, by plundering a proftrate E- ne-my ; who has never conquered a Foe, whom he did not make a Friend, and whofe only Ambition is, to clofe his Life, as he has fpent a great Part of it, in your Service: Others of you, who will prefume to think for yourfelves, do not difcover the particular Propriety of appointing to the civil Com- mand of a Settlement, that Perfon, who firft adopted military Meafures, fo definitive to a trading Body, and who has already been fufficiently deck'd with Eaftern Spoils : Of thefe Spoils too, you, with no lefs Curiofity than Juftice, want to fee a particular Ac- count ; count; and, becaufe this is concealed, you form iome unfavourable Reflections : You talk of the real Duties incumbent on a Ser- vant, employed by the Company, who$ on Admiffion, takes a moft folemn Oath of Fidelity, covenants for a certain Sa- lary, and a free Liberty to trade in India, and engages to dedicate his beft Endea- vours to promote, in all Inftances, the fole Intereft, not of himfelf, but of his Employers : You affirm, that amazing Ac- quiiitions have been fuddenly made by pri- vate Perfons, when only, Reftitution for the Lofles fuftained by the Expulfion of the Engltfo from Bengal^ could juftly be clainv- ed ; and, fhould the Mogul ever regain his .lawful Power, you reafonably expect that ,he will demand, and as reafonably fear, that you muft repay, all thofe Sums, which your Servants, for themfelves, extorted, be- yond the juft Reftitution, and the Expences incurred, in re-pofleffing our Settlements : Nor do you imagine that the Pretence of having a Nabob's Authority, will at all a- vail the Company, as it is certain that he had no other Power than what the EngliJJj Arms alone gave him. When any one tells you, (what the great Man's Friends now induftrioufly give out) that, if this Warrior and Statefman returns to Bengal^ he means to [ 27 ] to lay afide the Weapons of War, you wifh they would go further, and give you fome Evidence of his commercial Abilities ; doubting whether the Man, who could not fubmit to the Drudgery of Bufinefs, when in the Vigour of Youth, and when his Maintenance and Support depended on it, is now more fit, after a Life fpent as his has been, to prefide at a Commercial Board. With Warmth and Freedom you prefume to examine private Characters, and where any Perfon has {hewn the freateft Mifconduct and Indifcretion in is own Affairs, he feems to you to be ill qualified for the Management of public and important Concerns. Thefe and other fuch ftrange Notions fill the Heads of the cautious and wary Proprietors, and, I be- lieve, that Facts alone can remove fuch flrong Prejudices, which proceed not from Malevolence or Envy, but from an ardent Defire of the Company's Profperity. How far thefe Prejudices may be well-ground- ed, you, Gentlemen, to whom I addrefs this Letter, muft well know; for my Part (if the AfTertion of an anonymous Writer will be regarded) I do folemply affirm that no Motive of private Friend- fhip, nor of private Enmity, would ever have induced me to take up the Pen, I E think, 358688 think, with many others, that the Situa- tion of Affairs in Bengal is very unpromif- ing ; that if military Meafures are ftill to be purfued, and if your Servants return home with Fortunes, fo immenfe and fo acquired, the Company muft be ruined. Is not the Dividend reduced from 8 to 6 per Cent ? and, while the Intereft upon your Stock declines, the Gentlemen from Ben- gal come to England with fuch Wealth^ as toaftonifhthofe who have heretofore long toiled in the fame Country. Let then the Order of the loth of January 1760- Be- fore alluded to, be ftrictly carried i. LO Ex- ecution. Let the Servants employed in the late memorable Tranfactions be com- pelled to give a clear Account of all the Sums poffeffed by them on entering the Treafury of the Nabob; let them mew how the fame Sums were diftributed, and let every thing that regards that moft im- portant Concern, be moft minutely fet forth. Until this be effectually done, not one of them ought to be permitted to hold any Employment or Truft under the Com- pany : For furely it is contrary to Prudence, Reafon and Juftice, to re-admit any one into Office, before his former Conduct has been thoroughly known, and found to have been worthy of juft Commendation. FINIS. <* * UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-32m-8,'58(5876s4)444 LOS A IGELES \RY ! DS [ [A2P2 on the Present il^__tate_ofthe 'v- 1 "^^Tn^iF oop 01 ee DS A2P2 1?60 v.l